On RFD-TV: Kathleen Lodl | 4-H
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07/20/2021
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When COVID-19 put a stop to many events last summer – including many county fairs – Nebraska 4-H worked with local fair boards and other groups to make sure that youth development events could safely continue even in the face of a worldwide pandemic. Kathleen Lodl, Nebraska State 4-H Program Leader, tells RFD-TV, this year, fairs are looking a lot more like they did pre-2020, though COVID-19 did leave a permanent mark on some events.
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- [00:00:00.330]When COVID-19 halted public events last summer in Nebraska
- [00:00:03.510]4-H worked with the local fair boards to make sure youth
- [00:00:06.690]development activities could safely continue. And while
- [00:00:09.330]those in person gatherings are now returning some pandemic
- [00:00:12.150]precautions are being carried over from last year. Well,
- [00:00:15.540]Kathleen Lodl with the University of Nebraska- Lincoln joins
- [00:00:18.780]us now with the latest insight. And Kathleen, thanks for
- [00:00:20.880]your time, certainly a fun topic to talk about right now. So
- [00:00:24.540]what are fers and specifically 4-H looking like this year?
- [00:00:30.030]Janet, we are so excited that fairs are back to a pretty
- [00:00:33.780]pre-COVID stage and they are in person they are alive and
- [00:00:37.230]well. There's some wonderful things happening. And we are in
- [00:00:39.870]the thick of county fair season right now. We're glad to be
- [00:00:43.290]returning back to a more normal, but what we're also finding
- [00:00:46.800]is some of the great things that we did in 2020 are carrying
- [00:00:50.940]over to the new year because there's some fun things that we
- [00:00:54.120]want to continue.
- [00:00:55.890]So how is COVID continuing to change for age and some of the
- [00:00:59.820]activities on tap?
- [00:01:02.460]Well, what we learned is there's some things that we did
- [00:01:04.860]during that COVID time that really worked well. So for one
- [00:01:07.710]example, we are doing lots of live streaming of shows, which
- [00:01:12.120]means that whether you're showing in one county and the rest
- [00:01:15.060]of your family is somewhere else, or you've got two shows,
- [00:01:18.150]we've got one young person in the hog show one young person
- [00:01:22.410]in the beef show, you can see each other on FaceTime on live
- [00:01:26.670]video streaming. Or if you've got family members and friends
- [00:01:29.820]from across the country, they can actually watch that
- [00:01:32.610]competitor in the show ring, we are carrying that over, it's
- [00:01:35.430]going really, really well. We're doing a lot more things
- [00:01:38.580]online. So for example, you can see show orders, you can see
- [00:01:42.240]results, you're doing real lifetime kinds of things. It's
- [00:01:45.870]just a great time to use some of the technology we've always
- [00:01:49.020]had access to before in new ways. But in other counties,
- [00:01:53.580]we're seeing some of the spacing take a little bit different
- [00:01:56.340]look. So we might have more shows further apart. We might do
- [00:02:00.780]more things pre fair, or post fair. So we're making full use
- [00:02:05.340]of all of the summer during that time.
- [00:02:07.950]Well, of course the kids and their parents I know are happy
- [00:02:10.080]to kind of get back out things this year. So why do you
- [00:02:12.750]think 4-H is so valuable to the youth across Nebraska and
- [00:02:16.230]the country?
- [00:02:18.270]You know, Janet, the very core 4-H is about learning and
- [00:02:21.630]positive youth development, our job and our goal is to help
- [00:02:24.990]all young people be successful. And we do that through a
- [00:02:27.840]variety of ways. But certainly working on for each projects
- [00:02:30.870]throughout the year is one key piece of that. If it starting
- [00:02:34.050]with a livestock project in the spring, and then turning
- [00:02:37.080]into something that helps feed families and turning into a
- [00:02:40.740]lifelong career for that young person. That's what we're all
- [00:02:43.890]about. We're certainly about the competition and the
- [00:02:46.800]excitement that goes around county fairs. But I hope as
- [00:02:49.590]people take a look at county fairs this summer, they see
- [00:02:52.230]what's really happening. It's about successful young people
- [00:02:55.440]moving on into capable young adults.
- [00:02:57.870]All right, well, Kathleen, thank you very much for bringing
- [00:02:59.940]us an update. University of Nebraska Lincoln state 4-H
- [00:03:02.730]program leader Kathleen Lodl, of course, connecting with us
- [00:03:06.420]from the Husker state here this morning. Thank you,
- [00:03:08.460]Kathleen.
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